Netgear Questions (laptop, wifi, wireless, Office)

[lostsoul359]

1. Avast says Net gear is dangerous due to a weak passcode.
How do I change the password when an ex BF configured Net gear at my house?

2. Can I cancel Cox if I have Net gear running? How can I test it first before cancelling Cox?

Thanks for any help

[Peregrine]

1) Reset the router and reconfigure it. Can you find the model number?

2) No. Cox provides the internet, not Netgear. Netgear provides the WiFi.

[lostsoul359]

Then why am I able to keep a laptop running on Ne tgear wifi without the Cox service? I get everything the same in the laptop which is in the living room. My PC in the office has Cox and wifi

[Peregrine]

Your Netgear is a WiFi router. It cannot by itself provide you with internet service.
Your PC in the office is getting it's WiFi from the Netgear router. Your Cox cable is connected to your Netgear router which then turns that signal into a wireless signal that all your machines use.
Still don't believe me? Disconnect the coax cable from the Netgear router. What happened?

[dspguy]

Along with the other great advice, you will want to reset your router.

Some things you may need:

- Instruction manual for your Netgear router (find model number and google it)
- An ethernet cable to connect your PC to the router in order to configure it

Your PC might already be connected via an ethernet cable. Some routers (or most?) will likely require you to be physically connected to the router in order to initially set it up.

Most routers will require you to browse to 192.168.1.1 and there's likely a default username and/or password (probably "admin" or "netgear" or something). The manual will tell you what it is. Hell, the default password might still be in there. So maybe before you reset it, try browsing in a web page to 192.168.1.1 and see if that gets you into your router.

By the way, Avast is probably squawking about a "weak passcode" because you are using WEP for encryption. Without getting into any technical jargon, encryption is what keeps someone else from "listening in" to what is transferred over your network if they were close enough to your router to receive the signals. It also prevents them from using your network.

WEP is weak and it is recommended to change it... however it is possible that you might have devices in your house that is only compatible with WEP. So you wouldn't be able to change it without losing access to those devices. Your laptop though, likely would be fine if you use WPA2 (more acceptable encryption that WEP).